The Bengaluru police have booked several top officials of Karvy Group, including Karvy Private Wealth’s chief executive officer (CEO) Abhijit Bhave, for criminal breach of trust and cheating.
According to media reports, nine investors have filed a complaint in Bengaluru’s Basavanagudi police station claiming that they have been cheated of Rs 3.81 crore.
Apart from Bhave, directors of Karvy Stock Brokers, Karvy Realty India Pvt. Ltd and Karvy Capitals have also been booked. The officials are accused of cheating investors by promising returns of up to 18-20 per cent.
The complainants include a couple, Ketki Shah Talati and her husband Mayank Harshad Talati, who had invested Rs 1.76 crore in the company in 2015. In their complaint, the Talati couple and others said that Srinivas, a relationship manager at Karvy Private Wealth, and others had promised that their investments would be secure. The complainants alleged that they stopped receiving returns at different points around 2017. According to them, the company cited reasons like demonetisation and GST (goods and services tax) for the delay in returns.
According to a report, the complainants stated that the relationship managers of Karvy were responsible for all their investments as they took cheques, prepared agreements and promotions materials. They did not have any direct interaction with the companies in which Karvy invested their money.
The managers had told complainants that investments would be handled by the Karvy Private Wealth CEO Abhijit Bhave, Real Estate Head Pravin Garle, Directors Kamodor Partha Sarathi, Yogendar Mika, Ashish Agarwal, Bhagavan Das Narang, regional heads Nithin Sabarwala, Praveenbai Bhagwanji Amlani, Nithin Saksena, Prathivadi Bhayankaram Ramapriyan, Venkatesh Sesha Ravi Prasad Chavali, Mumbai division head Chethan Deherkar and Basavanagudi Branch vice-president Thomas Stephen.
“We registered a case of cheating and requested all details and documents about their investments for verification. A probe will begin once we complete scrutiny of documents,” said a police officer. Basavanagudi police claimed they had interacted with Karvy officials who denied cheating anyone and that they would talk to realty firms and resolve the issue.
Denying the allegations, the Karvy Group on June 19 said, "The investors were explained of the risks involved in these instruments and provided them with all documents that were available to us from issuer companies. All these investors have taken informed decisions to invest in these products after perusing the documents available to them. Karvy has acted only as a broker and a facilitator."
“We submit that these investors, who have complained to Bangalore Police, are aware of the efforts being made by us, and in fact most of them are also party to the said litigations. In our over 35 year-old-history, we have always kept the best interests of our customers in mind and will continue to do so,” the statement added.
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